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On Being Off-Line

We recently had a lovely four night break as a family over Easter. We’ve been to this little rural property four times before over the last 7 years. It’s quiet, we’re familiar with what’s there, it’s only 90 minutes from home, you can see the stars and did I say that it’s quiet?

PLUS

There is no internet, and no mobile reception. In fact, you have to drive about 5 km to the nearest town to get any reception at all.

On Easter Monday we went into town to the annual fair. It’s a great set up with endless stalls selling farm tools, t-shirts and battered savs (no thanks!) and all sorts of stuff in between, all with a carnival atmosphere. We eagerly turned our phones on and they beeped as we drove into town. I had a “Are you around?” text from a friend (quick answer No), and on my wife’s phone, a few messages from a dear friend charting their journey in and out of hospital over the three days we’d been away, suffering from chest pains. Yikes!

Only a few emails had come in, including a lovely one from the guy who commissioned the drama I directed on Good Friday in the centre of Sydney.

Apart from that, we’ve been out of contact with the “world”. No facebook. No checking sales figures of books. No pointless reading of twitter or cruising around YouTube or ebay.

I haven’t been too twitchy in my cold-turkey withdrawal, but I have walked for over an hour every day, and effectively written a whole book while we’ve been away – about 5,000 words of “Nanna’s Driving Tips” with lots of help from my son Martin. You’ll see more of that soon – I’m planning to launch it simultaneously with “Nanna’s Cooking Tips” (about 1/3 written) in ebook and paperback.